Kevin Durant Leaving Warriors In 2019? Free Agency Decision Will Be 'Transparent'

Kevin Durant plans on being honest with his free agency decision amid continued speculation as to whether this will be his last season with the Golden State Warriors.

Durant signed another one-plus-one contract earlier this summer, which means he could potentially become an unrestricted free agent next summer and join any team of his choosing, with the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks among the teams linked.

While he has signed similar contracts before and repeatedly spoke of keeping his options open, there is added speculation this time that the 30-year-old will be in search of a new challenge, especially after winning two straight championships and NBA Finals MVP awards with the Bay Area side.

Whatever Durant does in the end, he is confident of handling the process throughout the 2018/19 season, especially from his experience that came from leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder two years ago.

"Just be honest," Durant told ESPN. "I was honest with my decision, but just like outwardly if people ask me about it, don't be ashamed to talk about why I decided to move teams and switch teams because it's not the end of the world. I didn't do anything against the law, you know what I'm saying? That's what I thought happened the first time."

Durant infamously left for the Warriors in the summer of 2016, a month after they knocked out the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. To this day, he still receives stick and criticism for the move, not only from the fans and media, but fellow players as well.

It is why he plans on keeping his future open and transparent this time.

"I'm like, 'Man, there's so much attention on me because I switched teams,'" Durant explained. "I thought I did something wrong, but I knew deep down in my heart that was the perfect decision for me and I know that now I just got to stand on that, outwardly say it, and that will stop the speculation from a lot of people. ... When they don't know, when people really don't know the end, the conclusion or why I did something, they're going to always speculate and create stories and clicks and that's only going to make me more upset. So I'd just rather keep it open and transparent with you."

"I dealt with it before," Durant added. "I just try to be as honest as I can. I'm not going to tell people what I'm thinking. ... Some days I think about my free agency, some days I don't. Some days I think about what my future looks like, some days I don't. I'm just human. That's just natural for me."

"But I can't sit down and talk to people about it because I want to keep playing, I want to focus on the season. So I know the questions are going to come. I know a lot of people are going to speculate and print rumors and sources, but nobody's heard from me about anything, so it's just all speculation at this point," he said.

The Warriors kick off their new campaign against the Thunder on Oct. 16 and will be looking to become the first team since the Lakers from 2000-2002 to complete a threepeat.

Durant is committed to helping the team to more success this year, and while he claimed Golden State was his home and where he felt most comfortable, he once again spoke of his impending decision.

"I'm here. I'm 100 percent committed to this team this year and going as hard as I can every single day to be the best player that I can be to help this team win," Durant stated. "It's going to be a lot of speculation on where I should go play ball, but at the end of the day it's just me playing ball. It doesn't really matter. I'm just playing ball, you know what I mean? I'm not making a huge, huge decision that's going to affect anyone else, but just myself, so I don't even know why everybody cares that much."